Saturday, March 13, 2010

Giving You More Than 100%

Have you ever had that coach or teacher that asked you to give 110%?  That never made sense to me.  Doing my best made sense.  But my best would be one hundred percent effort.  Anything more than that wasn't possible.

Apparently the guys over at Walmart have found a way to give 110%.  Having three kids in the house, we go through a lot of apple juice and last night I noticed the label for the first time.  "100% No Sugar Added Apple Juice", it says largely on the front.  But keep reading because you'll see an important note below that huge font.  "From concentrate with added ingredient".   Huh?
Added ingredient to my 100% Apple Juice?  That's not possible.  Depending on the amount of added ingredient, it seems like a more accurate label would be, "90% No sugar added Apple Juice WITH added ingredient".   

Even if I ignored the math issues, the fact was that I still wasn't sure what the added ingredient was.  I just knew it wasn't sugar.  So I flipped the bottle around to see what kind of stuff I was putting into my body.
Again, at the top they remind you that it is 100% Juice.   There is no asterisk there to note an exception.  It plainly states 100% Juice.  As I read over the fine print I would expect the ingredient listing to say something like, "apple juice".   Instead it reads, "Ingredients:  Filtered water, apple juice concentrate, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C)."

Clearly this proves that Walmart has found a way to shove more than 100% of something into a bottle without making the bottle any bigger.  Any math principles you have previously learned are now the property of Walmart.

No comments: